"Thank you, @auroraloon, for saving my life," I said, as I stepped in alongside her, trying not to eye my gorgeous glen10 in her right hand. We were headed down another creepy hallway, ominously free from overtaken, but I was more alert now after the one had surprised me at the doorway.

  "It's nothing," she replied. "Really. Just keeping my options open."

  "But thank you, anyway," I repeated. I was tempted to touch her shoulder or shake her hand or something, but that would have been awkward, so I just let my words hang in the air for a moment. I had been waiting for an opportune time to ask more. It seemed this was as good as any.

  "You know, you said I could be an asset," I continued, "so let me be an asset. Tell me about that suit, the keys, whatever the plan is. That suit looks high-tech. Doubt they'd play test dummy with you wearing whatever that is. Where did you get it?"

  She held her side and shifted the gun to her left hand, leaning her shoulder on the wall, slowing her pace. Our tussling hadn't helped her injury. We were stupid for fighting, but that's Union versus Alliance for you.

  "Do you need help?" I asked.

  @auroraloon stopped and planted her back against the wall. She stared at me, scanning me from head to toe, making me feel uncomfortable.

  "I'll be fine," she grunted. "It's healing." Then she thrust the glen10 out, pressing it against my chest. She squinted at me. "Take it."

  I was beyond shocked. "Take it?"

  "I've seen you move. You're agile and quick, but I don't think you can fight worth a damn."

  I was offended.

  "You don't think I can fight?"

  "Wavepilot," she said bluntly. She knew what that meant. I could fly and die. She had little or no expectation of anything more. "I know what I'm capable of. I can't believe I'm giving you your gun, but it's better odds. Just take it before I change my mind."

  I hugged the glen10 to my chest, and she released her grip. It felt comfortable as I took it into my hand and felt its weight. My spirits rose now that I was able to properly defend myself. She tossed me the extra clip of ammo next, pulling it out from who knows where. I almost dropped the gun as I deftly snagged the ammo out of the air.

  "Thank you," I said. "We're going to have to fight each other now, you realize. Since you don't think I can fight. I don't know when, but I challenge you to a duel."

  @auroraloon laughed at me. "Sure, fine. Let's just get out of here."

  "I'm serious."

  "I know you are," she snickered. "Wavepilot."

  "It's @kittyboy, @sparklepuss." I earned myself a satisfactory glare. "Maybe you can explain your plan as we go," I suggested, motioning out into our empty surroundings. "Which way?"

  "Left," she said, using her fingers to tick off the steps to follow. "Then two rights, a left, and up a stairway half a level. There's an emergency exit."

  I gestured for her to follow me, trying to remember her instructions, and we got moving.

  "I woke up in one of the rooms," @auroraloon reflected, eyeing me. "I don't know how much time's passed. When I woke up, I was strapped to a chair. I unstrapped myself and started hunting."

  "Hunting?"

  "Yes, hunting," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing to do in that situation. "For water, for weapons, for those overtaken things, for a way out."

  I knew there was much more to it than that. Her being here at all just didn't make sense to me. "Why were you strapped to a chair? You're a Burner, like them."

  "Do you see what's going on here?" she replied. "What's been done? I don't think I need to explain myself."

  "No, no," I stammered. "But the suit?" Her look told me to drop it. I knew I'd just have to wait. She was starting to open up, bit by bit. I needed to be patient. I just suck at being patience. I took a deep breath. Breathing helps.

  Her choice of words hinted at a much more complicated situation. Explain myself, she had said. If she had been captured as a lab rat to be toyed with, that would be all she needed to say. But instead of making it about the evil Burners on the starlab, she made it about herself. Why, indeed, might she have to explain herself and her presence here?

  Either way, I felt sorry for her. Lab rat or not, she had clearly been messed with. Some people are horrible and deserve a swift death, but I don't think anyone deserves to be messed with. And, I admit, I was starting to like @auroraloon.

  I continued on down the hall, past another intersection, lost in my thoughts.

  "No," she blurted, breaking the silence. She shook her head and waved a hand at me. "Right here."

  "What's right here?" I asked.

  "Right. Right here." She grunted in frustration. "To your right. We go to the right. The opposite of left."

  "Oh," I said. "Right. Thought you were shaking your head because, you know, trauma and horribleness."

  "No, you're just bad at directions. But yes, horribleness."

  Again, I was offended.

  "I'm offended," I said. "I have an excellent sense of direction. The best, in fact. The sun is that way." I pointed down and to my right. "But I suck at following directions."

  "The sun is that way, you idiot." @auroraloon pointed up and to her left, with her middle finger wagging at me.

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  "Whatever," I spat. "It works when I'm outside. I'm all turned around in here."

  "R i g h t …" she said, nodding her mocking head at me.

  Urgh! This was frustrating! I really do have a great sense of direction, I swear.

  Down the blindingly lit hall we continued, her blazing outfit leading the way now, moving from passage to passage as quickly as we could.

  "Can you at least tell me what the keys are for?" I prompted.

  "Alarms were sounding," @auroraloon replied. "I heard two people arguing about spacecycles. One wanted to take them. The other said no. They didn't have the range to get them out of Alliance space."

  Spacecycles! That was awesome! Yeah, the range wasn't too great. You could hop around a few moons or asteroids and have a blast doing it. They had solar power backup, but it was very low power, emergency-only type of thing, unless you were really close to the sun.

  "So the keys? Spacecycles," I said. "And the suit?"

  "I found it in one of the labs," she said offhandedly. "They just left me here. I got free and went looking for the keys."

  I wanted to believe her, but there was still a lot that didn't make sense to me. The suit fit too well. She knew where the keys to the spacecycles were. I was tempted to throw a tantrum and refuse to move unless she explained herself. But my terror-o-meter was telling me we needed to keep moving. Besides, she'd probably just leave me again.

  "Left here," she said.

  "What was left here?" I said, looking around. "I don't see anything."

  "Noooo," @auroraloon groaned. "We go left."

  I laughed. "I know. I'm just tormenting you."

  As I giggled at her, her eyes widened. The noise behind me told me the zombies were coming. Shuffle shuffle. Groan groan.

  "Well, we should hurry," she said. "You go that way."

  She pointed to the right.

  "But you said, Noooo, we go left," I repeated.

  "I'm tormenting you," she chuckled, and she hobbled quickly down the left corridor.

  With the bright lights and auditory interference running through the starlab, I realized that hearing zombies meant they had to be close. Sure enough, I turned around, and the shapes of a swarm of overtaken started to appear. This wasn't one or two overtaken. This was zombies upon zombies. They were no more than 15 paces away, arms and wires extended, eager to add me to their hive.

  When you've died a lot, you learn not to panic.

  But I stand behind the idea that being chased by zombies is a completely different level of near-death experience, so I panicked properly.

  I lifted my arms above my head and waved them around as I jogged down the hall, passing @auroraloon, wailing, "Ahhhhhhhhh!"

  She had said two rights, a left, and up some stairs. That meant I needed to find stairs. I looked around me, trying to make out the way in the blinding lights. But with all the corridors and rooms on this level of the starlab, I knew it was foolish to forge ahead on my own. Plus, I didn't want to get lost. She would mock me so hard that I'd probably have to shoot her, so I walked back to her.

  @auroraloon was stumbling her way as quickly as she could, and I noticed her pace was better. Her nanobots were hard at work, but it would take time for her to fully recover.

  I let her take the lead again, while I walked backwards, facing the oncoming horde, my glen10 extended. The snakeskin outfit made @auroraloon a reflective sunbeam, a human disco ball that sent rainbow colors all around her. I just needed to stay close to all the sparkles to know she was nearby.

  "That would be a great outfit for parties," I said. I have no doubt I would have seen her roll her eyes again if my back wasn't turned.

  "You know, you don't have to talk."

  "Making conversation before I die soothes my nerves," I replied. "And you have to admit, it's not looking great for us." We walked into what seemed to be a larger room. I hoped we hit that stairway soon.

  She surprised me and played along. "I'd like to see you dressed as a pi?ata so I can hit you repeatedly."

  "Well, I am full of candy."

  "You sure you're not full of shit?"

  I had to hand it to @auroraloon. She was great at banter.

  I laughed. "Whack me with a stick, and you'll find out."

  "Just give me a stick," she quipped.

  I knew she was panting from her injuries, but the way she said that struck a nerve. I realized I was crushing on @auroraloon. I had a great reply planned, having to do with sticks and candy, but then the first wave of zombies caught up. My humor is wasted on emergencies.

  I squinted in the brightness and unfocused to improve my aim, or rather, stopped aiming altogether. It took a few shots to down the first one, but after that, I got comfortable. I was worried that @auroraloon would demand I give her the gun back, but she didn't speak up.

  Fire with unfocused confidence, I told myself.

  I needed to be mindful of my ammo. Unplugged, it was harder for me to keep count. I knew that I had gone through my original clip and two spares already, thanks to my bullet tornado (but hey, I got out of that doom room, didn't I?). I had just started on a fresh clip when @auroraloon took it from me, and we only had one more clip. I figured I had about 34 shots left before I'd be completely out.

  I dropped two more zombies, feeling pretty good about myself. Then @auroraloon screamed "Bodies here!" from behind me. "Watch yourself!"

  I hoped we weren't about to be surrounded. Maybe it was just one or two bodies. At some point, we had to run into carnage. But I glanced behind me as I backed into the area and saw several scattered around through my squinting eyes. @auroraloon stepped over one along the wall and moved left, out of my line of sight. I was entering into an open space where the corridors intersected. Where is the stairway? I felt like we were so close, but somehow that wasn't reassuring.

  We had to hurry.

  I took down another one of the overtaken from the direction we came and sprinted after @auroraloon.

  When I made the corner, my heart sank. It wasn't just the several bodies. This was the junction point of a massacre. This was a heap of bodies, some still moving on the floor. I wondered if this was @cyberneticflare and @photon_binary's doing. Or maybe they had met up with @pixel_princess and @astrowave. I had to hope it was my Firesquad.

  My thoughts were answered when a zombie appeared through the shining light across the intersection. It had no regard for its own safety. Openly exposed, me holding my glen10 square at its head, it charged forward. I recognized the uniform and the stupid scanner slung across its chest. It was @photon_binary.

  No one would find out what really happened to @photon_binary, how he became one of the zombies. He was annoying, sure, but the empty look on his face as he charged at me, the uncharacteristic growl, made me sad. He was a scientist. Now he was an overtaken, a mindless thing that only wanted to make more mindless things. I noticed a wire hanging loosely from his head. One of them must have finally gotten to him, plugged in, taken over.

  I pulled the trigger as the lights in the starlab suddenly went out.

  First blinded by the light. Now blinded by the darkness.

  Luckily, my shot was true. I heard @photon_binary drop to the floor and felt his arm against my boot. I kicked him off of me and jumped back with a shriek, hurrying to find a wall to put my back against so that I could protect myself while my eyes recovered. His breath changed to a few gasps, followed by silence.

  "Power is out again," I heard @auroraloon shout from somewhere off to my left and ahead of me.

  No shit, I wanted to say, but I held my tongue. I was focused on @photon_binary.

  I knew what I needed to do next, as long as I had time. I crept forward carefully in the dark and reached a trembling hand down to @photon_binary's head. I fumbled around for where his mindspark would be. My hands were getting covered in his blood, and it was near impossible with gloves on, so I pulled off my right glove so I could root my hand around in his brain.

  I'm not a hero, really. This is just who we are. It's the memories that matter. It was the least I could do for @photon_binary.

  I grimaced as I peeled back part of @photon_binary's scalp on the right side with my utility knife, then dug my fingernails in toward where I'd blown his head open. It was gross. I was lucky I didn't puke in my helmet. I dug around as quickly as I could, feeling through the bits and bone. I didn't have time in the dark to be gentle, and he wouldn't mind.

  Finally, I found it and pulled out a memoryshard. I shook off the thought of @photon_binary's final breaths, satisfied that at least I had his memories.

  I heard @auroraloon to my left, moving away down the dark hall, beyond what my adjusting eyes could see.

  Power is out, her voice repeated silently in my head.

  I suddenly realized my idiocy, grasping the gravity of what @auroraloon had said. "Power is out," I said with a laugh, and I plugged back in.